Postcard from South Dakota: In the Shadow of Wounded Knee

Aaron Huey has been photographing the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota for more than six years. What began as the first stop of a larger survey of poverty in America became a project that “transcends the normal boundaries of documentary for me,” Huey told me. “I have developed a deep friendship and love for the people of Pine Ridge and for the families.”

Pine Ridge is the home of the Lakota Sioux, the tribe that suffered the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre in December of 1890. More than a hundred years later, Pine Ridge is one of the poorest counties in the country. Gang violence and unemployment are rampant, and the life expectancy for men is just forty-eight years of age.